We are New Focus a group of young people from Bradford, who work with Impressions Gallery to develop projects that inspire and engage people across the city. We are currently working on a project called 'No Man’s Land: Young People Uncover Women’s Viewpoints on the First World War', which is supported by the National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund’s ‘Young Roots’ scheme.

14th April 2016 – New Focus Meeting about ‘No Man’s Land: Women’s Photography and the First World War’ by Asiya Hussain

This meeting was based on discussing the new project No Man’s Land: Women’s Photography and the First World War, which our Head of Programme, Pippa will be curating for next year.

The aim of the exhibition is to explore gender: to consider what we think of as masculine or feminine in relation to war and war photography. Although most histories emphasise the experience of male soldiers, women were fundamentally involved in the war as well.

This project delves into the elements of war that aren’t well known to the public. This should be a really exciting project for New Focus to get their hands on!

With the arrival of some new members to the New Focus team, discussing the new project went better than I expected. Thanks to the introduction of the project from Pippa and Jennifer, everyone was extremely responsive and they were really eager to get started.

We discussed areas such as the barriers this exhibition might have with the younger people and what would interest young people about the exhibition. As soon as the paper came out to make some notes, all the thoughts and ideas just started pouring out from the team.

The project itself sounded really interesting as it contained some intriguing issues that could be explored from different angles. By the end of the meeting, you could tell that everyone left feeling positive and inspired. Can’t wait to get started now!